9th International Conference in Critical Management Studies, 8-10 July 2015, Leicester (UK) Towards Inclusive Development Sub-stream Turning on the township: A comparative analysis of institutional, academic and local discourses of financial inclusion Graunt Kruger * and Louise Whittaker Wits Business School University of the Witwatersrand Johannesburg, South Africa Abstract Financial inclusion is promoted as an important economic development program to solve the lack of access to formal financial services for billions of people around the world. The concept “financial inclusion” has entered mainstream business and development discourses as an all- encompassing term for innovation in financial services for the poor. South African policymakers and financial service providers have embraced this approach to address some of the country’s political, social and economic imbalances. Following Foucault, this paper is an attempt to understand how the concept of financial inclusion has functioned in our society to create human beings as subjects. Four texts from institutional, academic and local sources are analysed using a specially developed Foucauldian discourse analysis method. The comparison of the unique combination of subject positions, problematizations, strategic actions and forms of control between the texts is of interest. These four aspects of the production of subjects illuminate points of continuity and discontinuity between the texts. Discontinuities are important ways of locating potential points of failure within financial inclusion constructs. Points of continuity between the texts, on the other hand, trace the kinds of subjects that the texts, as instances of discourse, produce. The first subject is concerned with earning an income from their body as a labouring economic site. The second earns an income from a tangible property such as a shop. The third kind of financial subject owns intangible property such as a savings account. With this boundary of financial inclusion established as concerned with income and expense management, a further proposition is outlined. Asset building is proposed as a field of activity not currently considered part of mainstream financial inclusion. This proposition puts into question the terms on which individuals are to be included by the development project of financial inclusion. Keywords Financial inclusion, inclusive development, Michel Foucault, Foucauldian Discourse Analysis, microfinance, mobile banking, mobile payments, banking, technology, South Africa. * Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 617 817 5304. E-mail address: graunt@gmail.com. This research was made possible through the support of the South African Banking Sector Training and Education Authority (BankSeta).